The 2019 Dashiell Hammett Award for Literary Excellence in Crime Writing has been announced by the International Association of Crime Writers (North American Branch).
Winner
- Bluff, by Jane Stanton Hitchcock (Poisoned Pen Press)
Other Nominees
- The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols, by Nicholas Meyer
- (Minotaur Books)
- Blood Relations, by Jonathan Moore (Mariner Books)
- The Murals, by William Bayer (Severn House)
- Norco ’80: The True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History, by Peter Houlahan (Counterpoint)
Judges: Marina Endicott (Author), Rob Vollmar (Book Editor, World Literature Today), Deborah Dundas (Book Reviewer, Toronto Star)
Since 1991, the North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers has presented the Hammett trophy to the book of the year that best represents the conception of literary excellence in crime writing. The book may be fiction, non-fiction, or a graphic novel, the primary theme of which must be crime or the effects of crime. True crime is eligible.
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I can definitely confirm that the Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols was brilliant.
Still need to read Bluff…
Warner Holme says I can definitely confirm that the Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols was brilliant.
Not surprised given it’s the man who wrote two Trek films including the Wrath of Khan, and my favorite not by Doyle Holmes novel, The Seven Percent Solution.
@Cat Eldridge: “my favorite not by Doyle Holmes novel, The Seven Percent Solution.”
Mine, too! Am I the only person who filed this under SF as an alternate history type of story?
@Cat @JohnAA: I remember being kind of meh on The Seven Percent Solution. My favorite not by Doyle Holmes novel by far is Richard L Boyer’s The Giant Rat of Sumatra.
kewl! I wonder if the winner is a relative? (Two Hitchcocks show up in the colonies very early, but the last I looked (a long time ago) nobody had figured out whether they were kin — let alone (given that their names were Matthias and Luke) whether there were Mark and John who never made the voyage.)
Personally, The Seven Percent Solution is far from my favorite Nicholas Meyer Sherlock Holmes story.
I prefer both the West End Horror and the recent Adventure of the Peculiar
Protocols.
That said, the Seven Percent Solution is still brilliant.
As to placement, I might be tempted by alternate history if it weren’t for the fact I have hundreds of Sherlock Holmes books in their own section of my library.